Lecture by Mr Martin Cox, Director of John Locke Institute - Wednesday 8th November by Larry W

On Wednesday, we welcomed Martin Cox from the John Locke Institute in Oxford to give two short lectures to 32 Fettesians. The first lecture was on the subject of ‘Game theory’, which was essentially a study of the mathematical and psychological models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers. Using the rivalry between America and USSR during the cold war as an example, Mr Cox explained the reasons behind some of the decisions made on both sides and the considerations for these decisions from multiple different aspects. An example being that during the Cold War, America wanted Russia to be as strong as America militarily, so Russia is less likely to pull the trigger of war, as they feel less threat from America and an equilibrium is reached. He concluded by saying that the Game Theory can be applied to other aspects in life, such as economics and different branches of sciences.

The second part of lecture was an analysis over the morality of capitalism. Usually, capitalism is criticised for being immoral, as it can be argued that people aren’t born with equal chances and a gain made by a person usually results in the loss of another person. However, Martin Cox argued that capitalism is moral in the macro picture, as the individuals who benefit from capitalism are often the ones who made the world a better place. He used Bill Gates as an example: although Bill Gates made huge amounts of profit from Microsoft and its softwares, however his individual profits are tiny compared to the benefits it had created for the population who chose to pay for his products. Martin Cox stated that under a capitalist economy, businesses would generally design products that benefit the population, so they can gain reputation and profits as people recognise their products as being beneficial and reliable. He also stated that within a capitalist system, people have more freedom to choose what they want to do, although it might not still be the ideal choices, it's better than systems such as communism where people have no work incentive in what they are doing because they weren't offered a choice.

By Larry W